Red Jasper
Also Egyptian jasper
Opaque brick to brownish red, sometimes veined with darker lines or carrying a grey rind. Completely opaque: hold it to a lamp and nothing at all passes through it.
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- 6.5-7 Mohs
- Handling
- One of the least troublesome stones in the library. Safe in water and salt, will not fade, takes knocks and pockets without complaint. Rough pieces can be dusty from the saw; rinse a new one and that is the end of it.
- In water
- Safe
What it is held to be for
Egypt put red jasper at the throat of the dead. The Book of the Dead's spell for the tyet, the knot of Isis, calls for it in that stone and calls the amulet the blood of Isis. Pliny says the whole of the East wore iaspis as an amulet. Rome cut it for seals. It is the plainest of the Mars stones: no fire, no shine, only holding on.
Egyptian Book of the Dead, spell 156; Pliny XXXVII, on iaspis
Correspondences
These are the tradition's ascriptions, not properties of the mineral.
- Planet
- Mars
- Element
- Fire
- Signs
- Aries, Scorpio
- Chinese phase
- Earth
- Year animal
- Ox, Dog
- Centre
- Root Muladhara
- Sephirah
- Geburah
How it is used
Kept in a trouser pocket or a bag, where it takes knocks without minding. Held during a long wait, a hospital corridor, a delayed train, a night shift, because it does not ask anything of you.
Today
Stand with both feet flat, the stone in your fist, and count backwards from twenty. Put it in your pocket and go back in.
A longer working
For a week you know will be hard. On the first morning, wash the stone and set it on the windowsill where you make your coffee. Each morning of that week, pick it up before you do anything else and say the day's date and one thing you will not let slide. Carry it through the day. On the last night, wash it again and say what actually held.
Works with
- Herb
- Rosemary
- Incense
- Pine